(film projector whirring) (lively music) PRESIDENT JOHNSON: An unspoiled in this nation today.

Their flow and their vitality and too often, they've been by communities And it makes us all very fearful unless somebody asks now development.

So we are establishing a National Wild and Scenic which will compliment with a policy to preserve and their free flowing to protect their and to protect other vital PRESIDENT JOHNSON: after Secretary Udall on a float trip down the turbulent he returned to Washington every individual and at least one river.

So today, we are initiating a which will enable more Americans And now, it gives me great which I think will add still of our country, going to mean so much to my and all the others a beautiful America Thank you.

SHANE ANDERSON: The gift of wild rivers and a did mean so much to And now, it's up to my and continue this legacy.

My name is Shane Anderson.

I'm a filmmaker, and most recently a because I've realized can't just protect themselves.

Thomas Jefferson once wrote, "In the environment, and every defeat is Nowhere is this more evident 50 years ago, due to the thoughtful and brave people, for protecting our rivers.

That tool was the The idea was to balance with protecting what remained The act has literally saved American rivers from Despite a history of bipartisan, many of America's have yet to be designated, that have shaped Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

So for the 50th anniversary, this incredible story, inspired by those that had to protect their rivers.

After all, it's far cheaper river protection than GUIDE: This is Black Canyon where the Colorado River Here is where a man conquered placing a concrete yoke about it's tremendous water TIM PALMER: So when people a system of National Wild the big dam building era 70,000 large dams another 10,000 or planned or proposed, the modus in America was to dam at any cost.

There are these valleys and hundreds of feet of flatwater The migration of fish The flow regime downstream So they were really the uh, to the rivers of America.

LEE BOURGEAU: The biggest loss When I was a baby, It was for one thing most important, it was the loss ANDERSON: Celilo falls It was one of thousands of historical and ecological sites PALMER: There weren't only America, but the waters were you know there were rivers so much debris and oil on them.

Pollution was a way of life before the Clean Water Act diversions were rampant Water was considered wasted if and put to use for irrigation.

ANDERSON: The destruction caught the attention of John and Frank Craighead, the Potomac, from West Virginia They were trained in and pioneered falconry with trained survival skills And after relocating to Wyoming they invented radio tracking as they studied grizzly bears PALMER: So the Craighead grizzly bears So they became aware that the was one of the wildest river They knew that a dam on the had been fought and defeated in America were stopped.

But it was stopped only because Glacier National Park.

It's really the National Park more than the river per se.

So, being blocked there the Army Corps of Engineers, to Spruce Park But that ended up being in the history of because the Craighead brothers the Middle Fork was the They didn't feel that it would have effects on life.

But more importantly, more far reaching approach if we're going to protect PALMER: They began to bounce enlightened bureaucrats in the Stewart Udall became the The Wilderness Act in 1964 into his thinking.

As he described it to me, created a wave of support for And with the Wild and Scenic we jumped on that wave Senator Frank Church, from of Idaho, took the courageous legislation and sponsoring it In a matter of four years, idea to legislation It ended up passing the Senate and passing the house, get this, Back in the good old days, when you really had a good idea.

ANDERSON: From the wilds America now had a protection rivers.

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act values unique to individual Designated rivers would gain construction of dams and other or extraction that would natural character, without infringing on Only local governments have the laws.

Each designation was intended river systems and communities.

The concept of Wild and Scenic value in ecosystem services, and biodiversity.

[water gurgling] ANDERSON: Originally there were that were considered eligible That was list was culled to 67.

27 of those were chosen for and eight charter rivers were Each had an imminent Wisconsin's Wolf, Missouri's Eleven Point.

New Mexico's Rio Grande and Red.

California's Oregon's Lower Rogue.

Idaho's Middle Fork and the Upper Clearwater the Lochsa, and Selway.

Where the Nez Perce Tribe and saved Lewis and Clark from on their way out west.

ALLEN PINKHAM SR.: [speaks in native language] When you look at the 1863 the Clearwater River the reservation.

And that we designate it that system was important to us, and historic sites, TAMAHSAT PINKHAM BLACKEAGLE: to Nez Perce is salmon, and we salmon run And free-flowing rivers is a to have when you're going to PINKHAM SR.: it's a life source, come and exploit.

A resource you have to and use for the benefit of So it's a life source, Even though when they wrote in their journals, "These western Indians We didn't know we were because everything we could And our river systems supported that we used as a life source.

-My name is Silas Whitman, tied to the north star, and my people [native language], and it comes from the- how you're always And that's how we're looking in this beautiful place.

The Selway River is our It is the mother river of It's maintained its uniqueness and through all the trials and from dam building that was The idea was to dam the rest of in the territory, up to Montana.

We said, "No, you're We're never entertaining that.

If anyone's going to do it, So we tricked them, with a Council of Energy They came, "You sure you I said, "Yeah."

If the tribe it would do it itself.

Let's put up a proposed hydro on tribal lands, Of course, we're not going to a scare-tactic, Everybody threw their hands up they're going to destroy all these tributaries.

No more steelhead.

No more blah, blah."

Now you know how we feel.

We did the damage on that one, on how things were going, the Selway as a mainstream that back into a ANDERSON: In addition to and cultural values, all over the country to experience these wild rivers.

-I'm Hayley Stuart and I'm a Whitewater kayaker, the country A lot of those rivers designated I think from a young age, for granted.

I think before I even knew about it was always just, and you don't even really they're in such good shape, there's a lot of history They're not just wild and scenic it's because they're by this Act, and by the people actively.

STUART: When you're kayaking you feel like and you feel like you've escaped and the chaos of civilization and busy, busy lives travel a lot through other a lot of nature that's protected are just filled up with people, places where you It really doesn't matter politically, or socially, everyone enjoys rivers.

I think every single person has of a river.

BETHANY PETERSON: The rivers are for people coming here So if they had put in the dam, on these rivers, our little town of 23 people And then the businesses and none of the residents We would be under water.

It would have had a huge impact community here.

ANDERSON: The Clearwater's was left out of the original And the Dworshak Dam was built from the confluence.

Like so many dams in this era, WHITMAN: The construction of the North Fork Clearwater, the preeminent fishery, They destroyed what's called PINKHAM SR.: It destroyed spawning area just on So it destroyed a tremendous run And so, we should have objected and unfortunately This is how the lower Clearwater before the dam changed the a tall river with banks and they're straight... of the river.

ANDERSON: It was the of what was protected under and what was lost, A similar story unfolded in the heart of along the mighty Snake River from its Wyoming headwaters, the Columbia River, the second deepest canyon TV HOST: Before we go into I wish you'd tell us about Why did you want to run JOHN CRAIGHEAD: Well, we wanted and a have a look at the country because we'd heard of plans which would flood this area.

TV HOST: Wouldn't that destroy and put an end to the J. CRAIGHEAD: Yes, it would.

Man can build a dam, but he can in Hells Canyon.

ANDERSON: It was not just and natural beauty these were the main spawning where construction of dams built blocked eighty percent Shortly after the construction and a few years after the there was an engineering mistake The Oxbow incident was the for the abundant wild And still to this day, on the dams in Hells Canyon.

ANDERSON: Other ecological high water temperatures being and toxic blue-green algae The carp, catfish, and bass and sturgeon, now contain The three dams built in was just the beginning WHITMAN: They proposed on the Snake... without even asking us, commissioned and were supplied No consultation, B.I.A., "We don't know what's So, again, we respond and says, You're insulting us, And you're taking for granted ANDERSON: The Nez Perce but another proposal was that would block the PALMER: High Mountain Sheep we'd flood it all out, salmon runs on earth.

And Idaho boger He went to the closest which was in Seattle, A young lawyer named became convinced should be protected.

He filed the paperwork, appealing the Federal Power minutes before midnight That delayed approval Conservationists in Idaho They went from flat zero in to governor Cecil Andrus Hell's Canyon Dam would be "Only over my dead body."

And with support like that, Wild and Scenic designation also in 1975.

J. CRAIGHEAD: We'll only be able if enough people go out of the preservation of wilderness * NARRATOR: "The Wild River is says John Kraken.

An incomparable challenger that and humility for man.

We desperately need this deteriorating environment.

[suspenseful and ANDERSON: The Craigheads the gospel of wild rivers, on the Salmon River by the High Mountain Sheep Dam.

* They were teaching America the not just for recreation, corridors.

The 1970's brought a heightened of America's rivers, was the new tool Conservation organizations, began to sprout, mobilize, and and resource extraction America's rivers.

The newly formed organization, had their first victory to stop the damming of the North Carolina PALMER: Big hydroelectric already had all of their They had bought all the land.

They kicked the They tore the buildings down.

The bulldozers were figuratively ANDERSON: American Rivers a feisty band of river the governor of North Carolina protected.

The governor then took to the secretary of the who stopped the project.

PALMER: The new against all early in its history, 1976.

And it kind of showed the river they can kind of save any river enough influence and pressure.

ANDERSON: East of the Mississippi, Maine's Allagash, and the Chattooga, South Carolina, and film Deliverance was shot.

* [running water] ANDERSON: Back out west, became the state's first 20 years after the Craigheads the legislation.

Now these iconic rivers would and become priceless, annually flocking to in the Flathead National Forest Montana was finally on the map PALMER: The first really big system came in 1978.

Representative Phillip Burton was head of the He was an old school politician convince.

He twisted arms, he slapped he made you do it his way.

And as a result, he got the in American history passed, across the country, including rivers.

Then the next really big advance Lands Conservation Act.

Many of the wildest rivers in 34 of them in Alaska, PALMER: The big dam building to an end.

The turning point here was the At the time, it was the most It was the deepest limestone There was a massive effort to New Melones Dam, everything that Friends of the PALMER: New Melones Dam and flooded that amazing canyon in a way that no other place on And facing despair at that loss, resolved that never again would be lost.

What we didn't realize that was the last dam fought and lost.

ANDERSON: was a devastating loss, up north in the Redwood empire.

Home of California's last great Plans were proposed and heavily water district to build of dams, and connected Stretching over 200 miles from to the middle fork of the Eel, with plans to to Southern California.

The powerful California a roadblock at one of outside of the rural town where a 700 foot tall dam the entire community That roadblock was RICHARD WILSON: We had to We had to educate We had to bring all the to then governor Reagan and his Norman Livermore, this proposal really was.

ANDERSON: Wilson convinced to halt the project in the late delayed and not Reagan would soon be replacing Carter administration for and the future was uncertain for Jerry Brown was and after feeling the loss of from the New Melones Dam, the Carter administration to designate the Smith, Klamath, as federally designated saving the wild salmon and growing the national system last minute victory.

ANDERSON: Over the next 15 more iconic rivers, including Michigan's Ausable, and Oregon's Illinois, to become the Wild and Scenic * RICK GEORGE: When I started this I was not a seasoned or conservationist.

I had never done that And yet I knew as well as anybody.

My dad has been taking me And I knew the value of this there were proposals to build I wanted to be front and and I wanted to be understand it's time to look at And I learned a couple of One is there's going to be a with that, and that's okay.

That's their right.

We have to anticipate that.

You need to not go into a cocoon work from your house.

You need to open your door and and talk to them and talk about and their values are.

We'll have better river of that.

And the people that have an will be better represented.

I just think that's There's rumors about Wild and Scenic or lots And I live in this place.

I own property in this place.

When I first started talking the Grand Ronde and the Wallowa, in the middle of the night and threatening my pets My family, and everything else.

And I learned from that to in a federal Wild and Scenic Wild and Scenic doesn't take It doesn't take It brings opportunity and it the perspective of what's In 1988, the Grande Ronde part of federal Wild and Scenic very important federal statute primarily is there to protect America's rivers live on.

Really, what the Oregon Rivers 30 years ago, is first... the state of Oregon and its its rivers and the need to not just segments of rivers, ANDERSON: It's been Omnibus Bill in Oregon.

Since then, 108 rivers and have been added to the system, inspired other large-scale Arkansas and Michigan.

the East Coast saw new the Northwest.

Then in 2009, an incredible 1,100 new miles, including the in Wyoming.

Other parts of the world are Wild and Scenic, as mega-dams on the Earth's largest rivers, contributing to climate change, Indigenous communities, the Western world.

Countries such as China, Costa Rica and Chile are all inspired by the Wild And Scenic And some countries such have given rivers the same value even though mega-dam building we are constantly challenged public rivers.

In Alaska, the proposed the world's most sustainable In Washington, there are the third largest river in In Southern Oregon, have proposed nickel strip mines of the Wild and Scenic Smith In California, a $2 billion has been proposed And all across American there are proposals to open up threatening underground Oil trains and pipelines along some of our most Recent bills in Congress have public forest lands to with no environmental all under the guise of Toxic blue-green algae blooms common all over America, supplies.

But perhaps the biggest threat is a changing climate.

MAN 1: Mt.

Anderson headwaters remainder of the glacier.

MAN 2: It's hard to fathom in my lifetime, All of the glaciers in the ANDERSON: Climate change and there has been no time in to utilize the tools we have to our watersheds.

Wild and Scenic is one of Personally, I'm going to be in the Wild and Scenic movement.

It starts in my backyard of which for having hundreds of the only a handful are designated.

The wild Olympics campaign aims watersheds and salmon all on public lands.

These rivers attract to the national park, $400 million annually to Up in the Northern part there's efforts underway to which connects the Cascades to and is home to all five which are an important prey Orca families.

All across the country, building.

In California, the Mokelumne River was Wild and Scenic system.

And there are three more including the Desert Protection the Central Coast Heritage Act, and the Northwest California which will include the Mattole River estuary, to the Trinity and the Eel.

Momentum is also building with East Rosebud Creek becoming Wild and Scenic River after a local community came to stop the construction In addition, the Montanans for will preserve important streams Clark Fork and Yellowstone to keep Montana the way it is Campaigns on the East Coast Wild and Scenic can also coexist and urban areas.

Connecticut's Lower Farmington and cultural values.

And with over 60 years of it's gained tremendous Massachusetts and Nissitissit, and Squannacook mainly private land, and the of all eleven participating Connecticut and Pawcatuck System is home to than any other watershed North Carolina's Nolichucky free-flowing streams, enthusiasts.

In the Southwest, the Gila River New Mexico's last free-flowing a boondoggle diversion that out of basin.

Deep Creek, has the largest complex of caves and at depths of it is truly one of the last in the West.

And in Oregon, capital of the world, building on that legacy.

The Wild Owyhee campaign would River Canyon, threatened by And the Oregon Wildlands cold water tributaries to the while adding the Nestucca River first designation.

It will also include mining the Wild and Scenic Smith where industrial nickel strip These campaigns are just Currently, 289 major rivers designated Wild and Scenic, 14,000 miles of waterways.

However, of America's rivers and streams, designations in the West.

Currently, there's over 3,200 already eligible.

So what are we waiting for?

J. CRAIGHEAD: One of the great and of our nation is that can arise at the grass roots and where appropriate action We must continue to raise our ANDERSON: Each and every under Wild and Scenic began Someone asked, Each of us have a river So what's yours, of this American legacy?

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